FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT BELVEDERE - PAGE 2

The old Hotel Belvedere has weathered its share of rotten luck.Its good name has been dragged through the courts, subjected to fire sales and treated like some deadbeat worthy of debtor's prison. Too bad. One of Baltimore's terrific institutions deserves better, especially on the occasion of its 90th birthday. It was Dec. 14, 1903, that the hotel's brass revolving door was first used by the public.You have to like this great old pile of brick, terra cotta and plaster. It sits atop the hill at Charles and Chase streets like a hybrid of skyscraper and chateau.

A 21-year-old man who gave cigarettes to two men - and walked with them for a few blocks - was shot and wounded late Thursday in North Baltimore's Chinquapin Park-Belvedere neighborhood, city police said yesterday. While walking north with a friend on York Road near Belvedere Avenue, police said Jamie Dicapua encountered two men outside a liquor store who asked them for cigarettes. They gave the men cigarettes and walked with them, crossing over Northern Parkway and turning off York Road at about 11:35 p.m., police said.

The Baltimore Board of Estimates reluctantly agreed yesterday to a new deal that will pour $400,000 of private money into the Belvedere Square shopping center.The panel voted 4-1 to forgive a $1.7 million government loan to the center, at York Road and Belvedere Avenue. In return, property loan holder Eastern Savings Bank will spend $400,000 to renovate the site and attract new tenants.During a one-week delay in the vote, the city coaxed Eastern into changing the property's management, Thornhill Properties, within 30 days.

By Maria Blackburn and Maria Blackburn,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | June 27, 2004

It's possible to buy everything from arugula to zesty smoked salmon torte at the refurbished Belvedere Square in North Baltimore. Now, women can buy a little something to wear, too. Cloud 9 Clothing, a local shop carrying funky, fresh dresses and separates by such makers as Free People, Angie, Tramp and Red Engine jeans, opened last month. On the day we visited, the airy 1,200-square-foot store had lots of flirty skirts in bright colors, florals and polka dots for about $45, a passel of pink strapless dresses and some sunny yellow shirtwaists, too ($65)

THE BELVEDERE Hotel's ballroom has always been one of my favorite places for a party -- old and elegant. And it was a perfect stand-in for Truffles owner Tom Stuehler and his wife, Nancy, when they decided to change their holiday soiree from their home to the Belvedere, of which they own about 30 percent interest.And what a catering show they put on for family, friends and clients! Reindeer ice sculptures reigned over mounds of salads, lobster, clams, oysters, shrimp, rounds of beef, turkey, pastas.

Pauli Santi of Champagne Tony's, which closed in Federal Hill, Thomas Stuehler, owner of the catering company Truffles, and Aristotle Stroumbis, former head waiter at Boccaccio, are about to open a trio of restaurants in the Belvedere at Chase and Charles streets.The Bar, formerly the Owl Bar, should be in business at the beginning of November with a brick oven, seafood specialties and casual Italian food. A couple of weeks later the reincarnated Champagne Tony's will open where the John Eager Howard Room was. The bar on the 13th floor will become Taste of Truffles, specializing in lavish desserts and coffee as well as drinks.

BECAUSE HE IS such a shy, retiring fellow, it took Greg Novik all of about eight seconds this week to cast off his guise as humble maker of bagels and thrust himself into the great political question of our time concerning one Martin O'Malley. "You said so many nice things about me," announced Novik, proprietor of Greg's Bagels, as he stood facing the mayor of Baltimore, a small squadron of reporters, assorted TV cameras and more than a hundred spectators, "that I'm going to have to vote for you no matter which way you run."

The Queen Anne Belvedere row of apartments on North Charles Street is one of the most historic places to live in Baltimore - a rare, intact block of late Victorian architecture. It's also one of the most up-to-date places to live, following an $8 million restoration and modernization that has prepared it for occupancy by a new generation of residents. At 10 a.m. on Thursday, Gov. Parris N. Glendening will preside over a ribbon-cutting ceremony that will mark substantial completion of 18 months of reconstruction in the 1200 block of N. Charles St. The 100,000-square-foot development is one block south of the University of Baltimore's campus.

If all goes according to plan, sometime soon Daniel Chaustit, a former chef/owner of Christopher Daniel in Cockeysville, will be the new owner of Taste in Belvedere Square. Or rather, of the space where Taste was. When the restaurant reopens - with good luck, sometime in mid- to late July - it will have a new name and a new identity. Claustit, who split amicably with his partner, Chris Ellis (the Christopher in Christopher Daniel), says the food will be modern American and the restaurant will be "more of a neighborhood place."

The Belvedere Market is about to lose its fourth major establishment soon, when Flowers at Belvedere leaves to join two former market tenants who have opened new stores nearby on York Road.All four stores -- the others are Faidley's Seafood, Wernig Country Meats and Debbie's Produce -- had been at the market since it opened five years ago. Their departure is being blamed on high rents at Belvedere.But Wernig, Debbie's and Flowers will be neighbors again at Drumcastle Center, where plans are under way to create an Old World-style market using two adjacent stores.